James Ray Trial: Pre-Trial Hearings + Updates…

November 16, 2010

I will post further updates on the James Ray Trial (set to begin on 16 Feb 2011) here for now. (For more background see here.) Scroll down for the first post covering general information and links to witness statements and prosecution documents is under 16 November.

(Please note, I’m posting from Europe, so I only have access to internet resources. Feel free to add any links in the comments.)

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James Ray Trial: Pre-Trial Hearings Updates

March 3 2011 Evidence regarding earlier sweat lodges will be allowed under certain conditions. Admissibility will be decided case by case, so to speak. That means that Ray’s serial recklessness during previous groups and sweat lodges will be included to a considerable degree, as evidence.

I’ll post more about the trial as it unfolds – bit hard to stay current from here in Germany. Excellent up to date blog coverage on Salty Droid’s James Ray Trial Updates page, with extensive background info.

If I believe I cannot do something, it makes me incapable of doing it. But when I believe I can, then I acquire the ability to do it

This is classical James Arthur Ray: plain stupid, and coming from someone who lied about virtually every aspect of his training and experience, and who recklessly caused four deaths inside of two months, it demonstrates the cause of the problem. That he keeps spewing out this kind of nonsense shows the extent to which he is in denial about his own situation, and to which he is indifferent to the pain, suffering and damage he has caused. It also demonstrates his dedication to grooming further victims.

Feb 25 2011 The state has made its final submission regarding the imminent decision on admitting evidence relating to prior acts (see Feb 24 and earlier). The defense wishes to call Dr Ian Paul to give evidence that the victims may have died of organophosphate poisoning. The prosecution points out that no requests were made for coroners to test for this and no other evidence will be offered. The defense plans to have Dr Paul simply announce to the jury that he “cannot rule out” organophosphate poisoning.

Of course, the defense wants the prosecution to be prevented from presenting the fact that previous sweat lodges were identical in all important ways and participants in the past suffered similar injuries to 2009 (bar the deaths). The defense is trying to pull a swift one on the jury. Expect plenty more such underhanded – though of course not illegal – tactics from the defense.

The state also points out:

Prior to entering the sweat lodge in 2009 the Defendant made repeated references to symptoms they [participants] would experience, leading participants to believe such symptoms were normal and safe. All of this information will be presented to the jury. [If prior acts are to be excluded] the one fact that would not be presented is that following previous sweat lodge ceremonies, some participants experienced vomiting, problems with balance, disorientation or incoherence, unresponsiveness, shaking violently or convulsions, and apparent loss of consciousness.

The state replies to the defense’s motion to exclude the audio recording of the entire 5 day event from the trial. As always, where the defense presents verbose, frivolous nitpicking over technicalities, the prosecution presents the facts and arguments that motivated them to press manslaughter charges in the first place. It describes many of the processes that Ray put participants through, including his insane six hour God Game which involved him playing God and ordering participants to “die”.

Read the whole thing. It’s lays out Ray’s insidious methods. Ray’s defense team have no answer for any of this, so they’re objecting to it on technical grounds, trying to prevent the jury from hearing it.

James Shore read his statement that first day of the event and the audio reflects his commitment to live his life as a Samurai warrior…to “live honorably on the path to enlightenment”The evidence at the trial will show that James Shore dragged an unconscious participant to the opening of the sweat lodge at the 7th round, saving her life, then returned to the back of the lodge and attempted to save the life of Kirby Brown. When he called out to Defendant that Kirby wasn’t breathing and needed to get out, the Defendant replied that it was too late, the door was closing and they needed to wait until the next round.

Ray had lied to participants that they would be safe and that he knew what he was doing. Participants had paid $10 000 for his expertise and had been led to believe they need focus on nothing other than their determination to “play full on” as Ray continually told them.

The defense will be arguing that James Shore should not have expected Ray to provide the services everyone had paid him for, nor should they have believed he had the expertise he claimed.

Feb 24 2011 In the coming days there should be a decision regarding the admissibility of evidence of Ray’s “prior acts” – that is, the mountain of evidence the prosecution assembled regarding injuries and Ray’s reckless behavior in previous years. As noted below, the judge upheld the defense’s objection, on the grounds that the problems and injuries in previous were not life-threatening enough to count as a fore-warning for Ray. The judge, however noted that this ruling excluded the evidence for consideration purely in regard to manslaughter and not necessarily in regard to lesser offenses contained in the charges.

The prosecution have indeed submitted a motion to include evidence of prior acts as relevant to the lesser offense of negligent homicide. The defense objects of course, and adds more objections to items of evidence.

Incidentally, here’s an interesting book Tragedy in Sedona by Connie Joy (reviewed here) which provides a close up portrait of James Ray as one of his former students saw him. It reveals an emerging pattern of recklessness and greater and greater risks, and also provides an insight into why successful and intelligent people could be duped by such a ruthless conman like Ray. The author also has a site with a good overview of witness statements and testimony given to police.

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Feb 15 2011 Shortly before the trial the defense is continuing its policy of trying to pull every trick in the book. (As is to be expected – they have long realized they have no arguments of substance, and have no choice but to try and squeeze Ray through as many technical loopholes as possible. It could well work, but all it would prove is that the legal system finds it hard to stop the kinds of malicious practices that Ray uses.)

The have been trying to get the venue changed, absurdly claiming “inflammatory” media coverage has prejudiced the jury pool, and attempting to have expert witness Rick Ross excluded from giving testimony. The prosecution has provided an excellent summary of what Ross’s testimony would cover, relating to the manipulative and coercive strategies routinely used by Large Group Awareness Training (LGAT) practitioners like James Ray, in order to elicit specific behaviors from unsuspecting (i.e. trusting) participants.

One can bet that the LGAT Gurus all around the US are watching this case very nervously. As there have been so many injuries that have occurred due to the terrible abuses from the advanced manipulative techniques being used on people, all over the US and the world. If he can get away with it, in this case, then that is a green-light for the LGAT Gurus to just keep doing what they are doing, and have been doing for decades. This will show whether the courts are decades behind what is happening in the world of the “LGAT seminar”, these highly manipulative and advanced methods being used on people with no idea of what is happening to them.

One might add that as well all the manipulative techniques, Ray also included a very large proportion of flat out lies. If he really did have the training and experience in running sweat lodges that he claimed, he most likely would have avoided the reckless practices with which he ignorantly caused three deaths.

It is worth noting that while others cooked, Ray was sitting by the door (the only source of air), and having water sprinkled on him by an assistant. His defense is that he was unaware of the fact that people were dying before his very eyes, and that despite the fact that he was the leader and the sole controller of temperature in the lodge, he was somehow not responsible for the deaths.

As noted above and below, his other form of defense is to exclude vast quantities of damning evidence from the court on legal technicalities. Regardless of how the court decides, the fact is that four people died at James Ray events in the space of two months in 2009, each as a result of Ray’s reckless mismanagement, deceptive practices, and shocking indifference to the suffering of others.

Feb 4 2011 Just has just granted the defense’s motion to exclude mention of “prior acts”, i.e. sweat lodges from previous years which led to severe medical distress in dozens of participants. Here is the judge’s ruling, and here is some of the evidence that the jury will not be hearing.

Before Ray was charged, the defense was explicitly referring to previous sweat lodges run by Ray and claiming they had been safe, and Ray had even added safety precautions over the years. However that was based on their own “investigations” (i.e., talking only with people already in Ray’s pocket). When the prosecution outlined the masses of evidence they had which showed repeated instances of people suffering severe medical distress from exposure to heat, the defense realized they would not win any arguments with their version of the “facts”. So they have managed to get it excluded on a legal technicality.

As far as I’m concerned, that is an open admission that they know perfectly well that if the jury heard that evidence, they would convict him of three counts of manslaughter.

Sadly, the judge has shown that victims of exploitative hoaxes like the one Ray continues to run, need expect no protection from the courts, no matter how many die. Ray and his team managed to cover up the death of participant Colleen Conaway barely two months before he caused three more deaths and put 20 people in hospital. If Ray gets away with this, he will be crowing that he has been vindicated by the court. In fact he just killed four people and now has improved his chances of getting away with it.

Regardless of what happens, there are plenty who know exactly what this evil and deceitful man has done. And the evidence the state prosecutors have amassed is now in the public arena.

The prosecution plans to call well known cult expert Rick Ross, and Steven Pace, an expert on risk management for outdoor adventure courses, to testify as expert witnesses. The defense is objecting on the grounds that trial is not about whether Ray met normal corporate standards, (a term he has most likely never considered to be relevant to his “mission” to become the “world’s first billionaire guru”).

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Jan 14 2011 Important decision reached by the court regarding evidence the defense has been trying to have excluded from the trial. The court ruled in favor of the prosecution’s motion to compel disclosure of an audio recording of James Ray’s instructions to participants immediately prior to the deadly sweat lodge. See Jan 7 entry below for details. JRI must also turn over ALL audio recordings from the entire event. This must be a blow for the defense, who has been trying to exclude as much evidence as possible from the trial.

The court also rejected the somewhat bizarre list of questions for potential jurors proposed by the defense. Proposed questions included requesting information about sporting experiences (a central pillar of the defense seems likely to be the idea that Ray was “like a sports coach encouraging participants” rather than like a guru who claimed spiritual authority), and also prepared jurors for the possibility that Ray may exercise his right not testify.

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Jan 7 2011 Final pre-trial hearing (before the trial starts on Feb 16) will be on January 26, 27, 28. Motions still to be considered are the defense’s attempts to suppress evidence about Ray’s actions immediately before his deadly fake sweat lodge, including his assurances that they would be safe, and “looked after” should they pass out during the lodge; that they would feel like their “skin is burning off” and “it will be hotter than hell, you will like you are going to die. You will not die.” (This meeting was taped, and the defense is arguing the tape is private and therefore protected. The prosecution answered this absurd claim by quoting the waiver Ray made participants to sign, agreeing to allow everything they say and do be photographed, video- or audio-taped and used by JRI for any purpose they wish including advertising. Not exactly “quintessentially private” as the defense claims.)

Ray’s actions after the lodge include standing by while people are in severe medical distress, and leaving the scene to have a shower and a sandwich while three of his clients were receiving CPR. He later sent out an infamous email to followers declaring the entire event a “success” despite “some people having taken ill” – at a time when he knew two of the participants were dead.

So far, it appears (to my inexpert eyes at least) that a considerable amount of evidence concerning Ray’s dangerous and idiotic behaviour in earlier sweat lodge events has been admitted as valid evidence for the eventual trial in February (see 20 Nov update). (Update, Dec 1 – it is still to be finally decided mid December.)

This includes evidence suggesting that earlier events were highly dangerous with clear instances of medical emergencies: warnings that were ignored by Ray. In fact it seems transparently clear that Ray’s sweat lodges were deliberately designed to push people quite literally to their physical limits. When he saw people collapsing unconscious, convulsing, screaming that they were going to die, he acted aloof and went off and showered, exactly as was reported by multiple witnesses in 2009.

Included are photos of people lying unconscious in the mud. The defense has claimed that changes were made in 2009 to make it safer, but adding canvas mats for people to collapse on instead of collapsing in the mud, and hoses and buckets to cool people’s cooked flesh, merely emphasizes that the sweat lodge was fully intended to physically overwhelm people.

As mentioned earlier, the prosecution’s summary of their evidence for Ray’s negligent behaviour is compelling, and it is no wonder the defense has been trying to get it excluded from proceedings.

The prosecution, however is also trying to prevent the defense from present specific evidence too. The defense claims that prosecutors are trying to smear Ray’s reputation and work, so they wish to reserve the right to call witnesses who will tell the jury that they were sexually abused as children, and nice Mr Ray helped them. The prosecution sees this as confusing for the jury, upsetting for the witnesses and irrelevant to the trial.

Anyone thinking that participants should have just gotten up and walked out of the sweat lodge, as has been argued by hack journalists, ignorant members of the public and Ray’s defense team, should realise this:

Ray told people they would feel like their skin would burn off, that they would feel like they were “going to die”, but that they would “not die”. “If you pass out you will be cared for”. He told them that the warning signs for dehydration, heat stroke, and organ failure were actually good signs of the body “detoxifying” or entering an altered state of consciousness.

They believed that the whole purpose of the lodge was to overcome their physical discomfort. The defense says Ray was “like a sport coach” in encouraging them to push on. That doesn’t change a thing. They believed they were safe, and assumed that ray had the expertise he claimed. They had also paid Ray a small fortune for the experience and wanted to get the full value for it. It was perfectly reasonable for them to believe they had Ray’s support; indeed, they had every right to demand it.

For the defense to argue that they should have simply walked out is an open admission that the defense thinks the participants should not have believed Ray’s assurances that they were safe, nor expected the fulfillment of the services they had paid Ray for.

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20 Nov.

Here are two more important documents just uploaded by the Yavapai county site – scroll down, the Ray trial docs are in the middle. You can register there to receive updates, BTW.

This is a list of exhibits that appear to my non-lawyerly eyes to have been ruled admissible evidence, overruling the objections of the defense. Further dates for the preliminary hearing are set for mid December, so I don’t know if the defense can lodge another objection. The evidence includes the all important photographs and witness testimony concerning earlier sweat lodges.

Here is the prosecution’s summary of the crucial information which the defense has been trying to prevent from being heard in the trial. Reading through it, I can well understand why they don’t want these accounts to reach the jury’s ears. Ray appears to be even more negligent, dangerous and malignant than even my low estimate of him held.

I stress again, I’m no lawyer, so I’m not certain of what to conclude from the seeming approval of these exhibits. For now, I think it’s important that the accounts of earlier sweat lodges be a part of Ray’s well deserved “trial by media”. Anyone who thinks this is unfair need only check Ray’s twitter site. He has been waging a PR offensive (pun intended) ever since the evening of the incident. (Those familiar with the case will recall that he sent out an email proclaiming the event a “success” – no mention of tragic accidents then – despite some participants “having taken ill” – no mention of two deaths, one person in a coma and 20 people air lifted to hospital.)

19 Nov.

Witness Caren Wendt reports seeing no problems and being in no danger in the 2008 sweat lodge.

Wendt compared Ray to a coach and said he wasn’t abusive in challenging participants to improve themselves.

That is exactly the analogy the defense used in the White Papers. (They did not name any coach who caused three deaths and 19 hospitalizations in one training session, or why such a coach should not be charged.) But Ms Wendt seems to have more connections with Ray than communal stretching of analogies.

Salty Droid has been doing a bit of a background check on Ms Wendt and discovered that she is involved with a multi-level marketing company called Greenswitch. At the link, you will find the Dealers page. If you go to the question How did you hear about us? there is a drop down menu with the following options:

So it looks like James Ray is Caren Wendt’s upline. Kinda innaresting. As the Droid asks, did she disclose her financial interests to the court?

My question for the defense would be If there were no problems at the 2008 sweat lodge, why are you guys trying to get it excluded from the evidence?

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16 Nov.

Preliminary hearings are currently underway in the trial of spiritual teacher James Arthur Ray’s trial for three counts of manslaughter. The trial is set to start in mid February 2011, and the current hearings are to determine whether or not the prosecution will be permitted to include damning evidence from previous sweat lodge events.

Normally evidence of prior acts of a defendant would not be admitted, but prosecutors argue that Ray exhibited negligent and reckless behaviour in sweat lodges in previous years, and had ample warning that his practices were endangering the welfare of participants. They wish to present witnesses and photographic evidence of incidents that occurred in previous sweat lodges.

“Clearly the answer is [that such evidence should not be allowed], because it is incumbent on the state of Arizona to prove Mr. Ray’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt which existed in October 2009 and not simply that he’s a bad person because these people got sick,” [defense attorney] Kelly said.

“People got sick” is of course a euphemism for “three people died and 19 were hospitalized”.

Regardless of what the court decides, the evidence assembled by the prosecutors is clearly relevant to the question of Ray’s culpability. It will be of interest to anyone concerned with the question of Ray’s culpability. So here are the links to the original documents containing a good summary by state prosecutors. This doesn’t so much cover the fatal 2009 event, but the way the same event in previous years was run.

The prosecution decided against including any mention of incidents at non-sweat lodge events run by Ray. Sadly, this also means that the tragic death of Colleen Conaway at a James Ray event barely two months prior to Ray’s deadly sweat lodge will never be mentioned in a court of law. That will no doubt be a great relief not only to Ray, but also to the staff members (eg., Megan Fredrickson) who helped conceal the circumstances surrounding the death from police, and to hide the death from the other group participants.

13 comments

I attended an $1,100 event with this hustler and walked out on the morning of the 2nd day when I realized that he did not live by the principles he wrote of. He spent a 1/3rd of the event trying to upgrade you to his $7,000 $12,000 and $18,000 events. And if you paid today “you got a free t-shirt” . He was clear to point out that he was not in a relationship but “hoped to make love real soon” He did a doggie copulation dance and preen ed with self enjoyment. I never saw a man so self absorbed. 2 jumbo trons were not enough. We had to watch personal pictures, including semi nude photos from his body building days. He said a persons worth was based upon the income they generated. I hope they sue this guy to the poor house and then his worth to the planet will be seen for what it is.

The more of these kinds of “testimonials” that get passed around, the better.

The prosecutors are arguing that financial motives aggravated his reckless behavior.

“hoped to make love real soon”
Apparently he had his service wenches approaching the ladies and organizing dates for him. I’ve known of other gurus who do that once they get enough power. Obviously, they don’t want to risk rejection – that would undermine their status and confront them with all those emotions they claim to have mastered.

Thanx for the coverage. I worked for James Ray for several years before he was “big”. He is the most narcissistic, self absorbed individual I ever met. I was never a fan. As I was in a financial position with his company, I quickly realized it was all about the money for him. Luckily for me I was only in his office one day per week or I would not have lasted as long as I did. And really the only reason I lasted was for his office manager at the time. James was pretty hard on her and he liked the financial information I was able to provide regarding his separate “events” and he laid off her somewhat. As I never attended any of the “events”, I was privy to many details weekly as to what occured at an event. As time went on, I was getting more and more concerned for the safety of not only the participants but of the member of the staff. When I finally left in September of2004 my last words to the office manager at the time were “He is an accident waiting to happen”. I can’t imagine how much he loved himself after the release of the movie the Secret. This was everything he dreamed of. He wanted to be Tony Robbins, bad. He even kinda looked like him! He is a complete fake! He would take off his Rolex (probably fake) watch before going to the “Creating Wealth” event where everyone would act homeless, the same one where the woman jumped to her death. He made his own parents pay for one of his events!! He thought he was teaching them something. Give me a break. It was about the$$$. He liked sleeping with not only the participants, but with some of the employees. He thought he was gods gift. As a matter of fact, in one of the events, he dressed like God in white robes and the participants had to call him God!! Sick huh. I hope the defense does not get away with supressing any of his past behavior as it is EXACTLY why what happened in Sedona happened. He should never have contact with the public again. He is dangerous. Please refer to the North County Times newspaper dated Wednesday, December 29th, on the back page there is an article update about his trial titled ” Limits on Evidence sought in Guru’s case”. If they succeed in limiting his past behavior, he will have won. His past behavior is everything as to what happened. Hope all this info helps. The person you should be contacting is his office manager around 2001-04. She has a wealth of info. Good luck

Yes, the admission of “prior acts” into the evidence is probably the most important aspect of the trial. I understand the final decision will be made in late January, although it seems to me that quite a lot has already been admitted – but maybe that’s just provisional.

The defense has recently moved even to try and exclude Ray’s actions immediately before and after the lodge. Of course, before included his six hour long God game, sending participants into the desert for 36 hours without water, and then assuring them the sweat lodge would be safe but they should expect to pass out or feel like they were going to die.

And after meant emerging from the lodge “like Rocky”, surveying the carnage and then heading back to his cabin for a shower while three people were receiving CPR.

And then sending out an email to his followers declaring the event a “success” despite “some people having taken ill”.

Next they’ll probably try and exclude all mention of Ray at all from the trial.

Thank you for providing details about this lunatic! I worked at AT&T and no one knew about him, so I think he’s lying about MOST of his career there. And since it was so long ago, most people who could verify it are gone. I worked for the AT&T School of Business and do NOT remember him. I think he is a sociopath, a fraud and I hope he ends up in prison soon!

Thanks for the comment, Jim. At this point I think we can assume that Death Ray said it, it’s a lie. Maybe there are some isolated circumstances where he managed a half truth.

The state has been adding to its witness list recently, including the originator of the “Samurai Game” to testify that Ray is not trained in it and has no right to gain legitimacy by using the name. Someone representing Stan Grof’s institute will also testify that Ray is not qualified to lead holotropic breathing.

The state was also investigating reports that Ray had contacted Native Americans trying to find someone to pretend they had endorsed his sweat lodge. They didn’t find any concrete evidence, and as Ray will no doubt refuse to testify, they will not have the chance to ask him his “Lakota friend” was who he claimed he was talking to “just yesterday” before the sweat lodge.

I hope they find all of the folks who people like James previously frauded to show a pattern. And since James is a STAUNCH advocate of the SECRET, I think that if we go by THE LAWS OF ATTRACTION, we can easily believe that Ray WANTS to be convicted since he CREATED this himself! Actually, I hope this case just leads to EVERYONE in that genre–Vitale, Ray, the Hicks, Rhonda Byrnes, Anthony Robbins, Bill Harris and Oprah herself–being defrocked and shown for the shams that they are.

It’s beyond me how anyone can still flog the LoA with a straight face after this. Ray was the poster boy for the LoA, but of course no one who is selling it wants to discuss how this could happen to someone who supposedly mastered it. So a master practitioner can suddenly find himself mysteriously clapped in leg-irons, pleading poverty to get his bail reduced, and facing upwards of 30 years in prison. Sounds great. Sign me up.

The only thing Rhonda Byrne has ever said about this is in her latest the book, The Power (which I will be posting more about soon). From the acknowledgements page:

“My deepest thanks to lawyers Brad Brian and Luis Li from Munger Tolles for their guidance and expertise, for being a living example of integrity and truth and for bringing positivity into my life.”

Yup, Rhonda’s life must have been a misery till she found comfort and solace in the soothing words of her lawyers, while fighting tooth and claw to keep her ill gotten gains away from those who were suing her for their back-pay.

I hope this trial shines a light into the practices of these crooks.

However I must also say that I misjudged Ray completely. I already thought he was total scum-rat, but I totally underestimated the degree to which his psyche is disturbed.

Whatever form of regulation the self-help industry requires, a sicko like that will always find a way through. It was only the fact that a large enough number of participants and employees were people of integrity, that more deaths were avoided.

Your information is great. I have been watching the trial obsessively. Ray’s attorneys are disgustingly condescending to the witnesses and their defense has been “Ojection, objection.” Does anyone know more about Ray’s background in Tulsa? Which high school did he attend? How long did he attend Tulsa Junior College? I suspect less than a year. He has totally lied about his background and experience.

All I’ve heard about his childhood is unconfirmed reports that he suffocated cats, which may or may not be true. It would certainly fit the the profile. His actions at all of his events and especially sweat lodges, reveal a quite sadistic side to his nature.

He was certainly not poor as he claimed. In fact his father runs financial scams similar to the ones Death Ray operates.